


Ditching Tricki Woo

by Nota_Bene



Category: All Creatures Great and Small (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29523762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nota_Bene/pseuds/Nota_Bene
Summary: James and Helen ditch Tricki Woo, and Hugh doesn't exist (sorry, Matthew).
Relationships: Helen Herriot/James Herriot
Kudos: 3





	Ditching Tricki Woo

James was holding Tricki Woo when Helen strode into the room in a velvet dress. James was dumbstruck. She was such a force, a beautiful force he couldn’t tear his eyes from. She scanned the room, lit up at the sight of him, and came directly over.

James felt absurd holding the dog as she approached, but at least he didn’t have to decide what to do with his hands. He knew they didn’t know each other well enough for him to take her hand familiarly, or, heaven forbid, embrace, but his hands tingled to touch her skin in whatever way he could.

“Good evening, Tricki Woo,” Helen said seriously, addressing the Pekingese.

Her sparkling eyes flicked up to meet his.

“Hello, James,” she said.

“Helen, hello. How are you?” he said, struggling to keep his dignity.

“I am well, and you?” she replied, a smile spreading on her face.

“Alright, under the circumstances.”

“Do you want to put Tricki Woo down?”

“Quite.”

“Well, go on then.”

James placed the dog back on the cushion, and turned back to Helen to find her hand out.

He shook her hand gratefully, giving her a genuine smile. He managed to stay in control enough not to lean forward and kiss her cheek. Her face fell the tiniest fraction, which he didn’t notice as he turned to take two glasses from a passing tray.

James handed one to her, and they smiled again.

“Would you like to dance?” he asked.

“Yes, I would,” she replied, “But let’s sit and talk first.”

She sat a little closer to him than she would have to Siegfried or Tristan, though he had no idea. It wasn’t close enough for her, but it would do for now.

They chatted quietly as the party wound around them. After one drink he was feeling charming and warm and he stood gracefully to escort her to the dance floor. They danced one dance, then another, and by the third dance they couldn’t tear their eyes from each other.

“James, would you like to get some air on the veranda?” she said quietly as the song ended.

“Yes,” he breathed.

She led him by the hand through the next two rooms and exited through the enormous French doors to the stone walkway. It was almost deserted, but she walked them purposefully past several windows and into a little alcove. James dimly thought that perhaps she had done this before, since she seemed to know exactly where she was taking him.

Once in the alcove, out of the wind, and completely hidden from the party, Helen seemed to realize what she had done.

“What must you think of me, James!” she laughed to herself, avoiding his gaze.

“What must I think of you, Helen?” he asked genuinely.

“That I am a trollop, absconding with you to have my way with you!”

“Have you?”

“Perhaps,” she said honestly.

“I wouldn’t mind if you had,” he said quietly, leaning closer to her.

She grasped his jacket lapels, holding him there. “I haven’t stopped thinking of you since I saw you first on the bus.” 

“Nor I you,” he murmured.

“Are you engaged, James?”

“No.”

“Have you a girl?”

“No, all I did at home was study. Mostly.”

“Is there someone?” she pressed.

“No one like you,” he averred breathlessly, his huge blue eyes searching hers.

She put a hand on his cheek and took a step even closer to him.

“Helen, are you engaged?”

“No.”

“Keeping company with anyone?”

“Not seriously.”

“Will you see me?” He angled his head opposite to hers, and leaned in. He had no intention of stopping this time.

“Yes, James,” she got out, then their lips met in a soft crush.

His arms instantly went around her, his fingers alternately smoothing over her velvet dress and bare skin. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him harder than she’d ever kissed anyone.

James hadn’t kissed anyone since a drunken night at the pub almost a year ago, but dimly he knew he didn’t remember that girl’s name, or face. There were no feelings wrapped up in the smell and taste of the woman he’d held in his arms. Not like this.

Helen opened her mouth and touched James’ tongue with hers. She felt his fingers dig into her skin as their tongues danced, and she ran her fingers through his pomaded hair. She wondered what his hair looked like fresh out of the bath, drying in the sun. Or after a dip in the pool, as she’d seen him a couple days ago. Remembering their meeting and what she’d wished she’d been bold enough to do, a flush hit her cheeks, and she kissed him more fervently.

He pulled away suddenly, and rested his forehead against hers, breathing heavily. She watched his closed-tight eyes, and panting mouth, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed him again. He responded immediately, stepping her back to the wall and returning the kiss enthusiastically. The cool stone almost felt good against her flushed, burning skin.

“Uncle Herriot!” rang out a high-pitched voice from the French doors, 50 meters away.

James and Helen opened their eyes and pulled apart with a smooch. Their gazes locked.

He grinned, in a way she’d never seen him do. He looked confident, sexy, dangerous. He leaned in and kissed her neck, openly and wetly.

“She won’t stop, you know,” Helen whispered on the cusp of a moan.

“She’ll find Siegfried.”

“Tricki Woo likes you better.”

“I didn’t come here to hold Tricki Woo.”

“Were you hoping to hold me?”

“I was hoping for exactly this, Helen.”

She guided his lips back to hers with a hand on his cheek.

“Uncle Herriot!” Mrs. Pumphrey’s voice had become more strident.

“Someone must have seen us come this way.”

“You did drag me through two rooms of people, like a woman on a mission.”

“I was a woman on a mission. I’ve wanted to kiss you for weeks now.”

He straightened up to his full height over her, put both his hands on her cheeks and kissed her, in the all-encompassing way he had.

Now Siegfried’s voice joined their host’s.

“James, blast it, where have you hidden yourself?”

Helen and James pulled apart and looked at each other, smiling.

James looked down and shook his head. Helen watched his face and felt a thrill run through her.

“You should give me a head start.”

“Alright,” she agreed, but didn’t remove her arms from his neck.

“I should go,” he reminded her reluctantly.

“Find me inside?”

“I will.” He gently disentangled her arms, then kissed her hand goodbye in farewell. “Don’t kiss anyone else out on the veranda.”

“Nor you,” she teased back.

He pressed a last kiss to her lips and then pulled himself away to meet his boss and their richest client.

*******

Back in the party twenty minutes later, James managed to not-so-gracefully extricate himself from Mrs. Pumphrey’s clutches and went in search of Helen.

Walking down a hallway, Siegfried hailed him.

“Looking for Helen, Herriot?”

“Yes,” he said, guardedly.

“She’s looking for you.”

James’ face lit up, then he tried to master his expression.

“Oh, there’s no point, chap, she came strolling in after you in a daze. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what you two were doing out there. Although I had you figured for a bit shyer than that, I must say.”

“Where is she, Mr. Farnon?”

“Siegfried,” his boss said automatically. “Library.”

James appealed to him with his eyes, and Siegfried said a little impatiently, “End of the hall,” and jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

James was off like a shot.

“Don’t take all night about it, James, I have people I want you to meet!” Siegfried called after him, knowing James couldn’t hear him.

*******

Helen’s back was to the door and she was thumbing through a leather-bound volume of something or other. Her eyes registered the letters without making any sense of them.

James eased inside and then closed the large double doors behind him.

Helen turned at the noise. She flung the book to the sofa next to her and they met in the middle of the room, sweeping each other up into a consuming embrace.


End file.
